MANHATTAN -- From a makeshift perch inside KSU Stadium on Saturday, an old football coach will look at Bill Snyder and realize he wasn't afraid to walk a similar plank.

Indiana wasn't ever as pitiful as Kansas State once was, but it was far from a plum coaching job when Lee Corso tried his luck there from 1973-82 and went 41-68-2.

"One of the five losingest programs in college history and I was in one of them. Yo!" Corso said.

Notice he emphasized the experience with one of the trademark comments he has been using the last 12 years as an analyst for ESPN. His role on GameDay will bring him here for his first personal glimpse at the undefeated Wildcats, who will attempt to end a 30-year drought against Nebraska.

He and his partners -- Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit -- will set up inside KSU Stadium, where fans will be permitted to blend into the background for the live broadcast from 10 to 11:10 a.m. Fans then will be cleared from the stadium before gates re-open at 12:30 p.m. Kickoff will be at 2:30, with the game televised to approximately 40 percent of the country on ABC.

When Corso makes his comments, he won't draw many jeers. At least not if he continues dishing the same compliments he has consistently delivered for K-State all season. It's a position Snyder wouldn't jeopardize when asked to grade Corso's coaching ability at Indiana.

"No," Snyder said, "not as long as he's saying good things about us. I don't want to ruin that."

He probably wouldn't. Corso noticed the 18 starters K-State had returning off an 11-1 team that won the Fiesta Bowl and began touting the Cats before the season ever started.

The message was even delivered in Lincoln, where Corso told the Nebraska High School Coaches Association the Huskers would lose two games and one would be against K-State. The Cats, ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll (sponsored in part by Corso's network), have done nothing since then to make the animated analyst back off.

"They're aggressive. They'll hit you and they can run, and there's not much more to defense than being able to run and hitting people when you get there," Corso said.

Corso also provides soothing relief to K-State fans worried over the Cats' No. 3 ranking in the Bowl Championship Series ratings. He points to a wild card in the postseason mix, the final Associated Press rankings. The AP has not agreed to stipulate the Fiesta Bowl winner the national champion and will conduct a final poll when the bowls end.

"All is not lost. I think some people are jumping the gun," Corso said. "If there's one of these undefeated teams left that doesn't go (to the Fiesta Bowl), they could bomb somebody and be the national champs with the writers. It happened last year (when Nebraska rose to No. 1 in the coaches poll)."

Whether Corso expected a warm welcome on his first trip to Manhattan wouldn't matter.

"I don't take grief from anybody," Corso said. "I learned at one time that you say things with conviction, based on intellectual study and hard work. That's exactly what I do and I didn't take any grief in Lincoln when I made that speech."

GameDay will be conducted on two stages. The first will be erected in the northeast corner of KSU Stadium and serve for the morning show. It will be disassembled before kickoff. An upper stage in the north end of the east bleachers then will be used for appearances that run between 6 and 10 p.m.

"Whatever we do for ESPN and ABC showcases our university and our football team," said Dave Cox, K-State's assistant athletics director in charge of game day management. "Consequently, we'll break our necks to accommodate them as long as it doesn't infringe on our football team and what they're trying to accomplish."

ESPN's production team scoped the stadium for angles of the press box and the student section. It also considered a stage outside the stadium to portray tailgaters, but decided on a setting inside.

K-State fans eager to be heard on GameDay for the first time won't consider it much of an inconvenience to enter at 8:30 a.m., holler intermittently for about 2 1/2 hours, then leave and come back.

Corso, for one, will appreciate their enthusiasm.

"I enjoy that because they get a chance to touch you and feel you," Corso said. "They can tell if you're a phony."